Facebook bans known protest-tracking tool for law enforcement

Facebook has blocked Media Sonar from accessing its data, according to Motherboard, a month after Twitter cut off its access. The Canadian company is known for selling social-media-monitoring tools to law enforcement agencies, who mostly used them to track activists of color and keywords such as “BlackLivesMatter” in the past. A Facebook spokesperson told the publication that it also banned the company from accessing its API last year. In addition, Facebook-owned Instagram banned Media Sonar from its platform for violating its terms of service.

It’s not exactly clear which agencies are using Media Sonar’s tools, but Motherboard says the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Toronto’s police department are most likely two of its customers. Further, it might have peddled its wares to authorities outside the US and Canada, as well. It apparently won an award for “going global” back in 2016 and mentioned going “into new geographies” before. Since the company keeps its dealings under lock and key, we can’t confirm whether its tools are being used by oppressive regimes to monitor its citizens. Either way, it can’t keep an eye on protests through three of the biggest social networks anymore.

Source: Motherboard

Tesla cars may be even safer now due to Autopilot, US probe finds

Tesla’s got to be gloating right now.

The electric automaker’s crash rate has fallen ever since it launched its semi-autonomous Autopilot feature. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Thursday that it’s finished a preliminary investigation into Autopilot and found no defects in design or performance, and according to the report, vehicle crash rates have dropped by almost 40 per cent.

Government regulators reviewed mileage and airbag deployment data from 2014 to 2016 for Model S cars and Model X vehicles equipped with Autopilot – either installed when the car was bought or through an update – and it officially concluded that systems like Autopilot help in reducing auto accidents. However, they warned that these systems do not mean drivers can stop paying attention to the road.

• Tesla: Everything you need to know about it

“While ADAS technologies are continually improving in performance in larger percentages of crash types, a driver should never wait for automatic braking to occur when a collision threat is perceived,” the NHTSA said. Keep in mind the government’s probe began last summer after a controversial fatal crash in Williston, Florida that involved a Tesla with the Autopilot feature engaged.

Tesla has responded to the conclusions with the following statement: “At Tesla, the safety of our customers comes first, and we appreciate the thoroughness of NHTSA’s report and its conclusion.” CEO Elon Musk also tweeted and retweeted highlights from the report.

Tesla’s Autopilot vindicated in NHTSA probe that shows a 40% drop in crashes https://t.co/u6ouLjaYnf pic.twitter.com/BETOhKq8lv

— Tom Randall (@tsrandall) January 19, 2017

LG’s Music Flow speakers will soon be Google Home speakers

Forget about Alexa. Google’s Assistant is going to be everywhere soon.

With Amazon’s Alexa appearing in every other gadget these days, it’s no surprise to see Google is allowing third-party device makers to integrate its Google Home assistant into their own products. LG, for instance, has announced that it is planning to integrate Google Home into its existing Music Flow speaker system, which originally launched in 2015 with the Flow app for remote control and multiroom listening.

On Thursday, an LG employee revealed in a forum post that LG will not only add Google Home, which presumably means Google Assistant voice functionality, but it’ll also add Google Chromecast multiroom audio to Music Flow. Keep in mind Chromecast wireless multiroom audio has been available since the launch of the Chromecast Audio, which essentially lets you control/sync speakers (even dumb ones).

• LG Music Flow: Hands-on with the most compelling Sonos

LG is probably eager to add an alternative multiroom experience since many, including Pocket-lint, found syncing issues during their time with the system. The LG employee wrote that a software update will bring both features. It’s expected to arrive by the end of February.

Brace yourself – ginger emoji are in the works

Equality is a beautiful thing.

According to a report by Emojipedia, Unicode Technical Committee members, which collectively and officially decide which type of emoji we get, will meet at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino in late January to consider new emoji or emoji modifiers that will add redhead characters to the standard. They’ll reportedly discuss how best to implement ginger characters, a highly requested option among consumers, Emojipedia said.

An Emoji Subcommittee proposal (PDF link) has been released ahead of the meeting. It explores several possibilities, such as a “person with red hair” emoji, a skin tone modifier, a way to change hair colour and skin tone separately, and more. Apparently, redheads only make up only 1 to 2 per cent of the world’s population, so adding a major character modification seems like a lot to consider.

• Apple iOS 10 will add a water gun instead of a pistol

However, equality. And Apple claims to be all about that – like when it made headlines recently for adding diverse emoji that represented more sexes, sexual preferences, and skin tones. Remember, Unicode 10 is just a couple months away, so don’t expect redhead emoji until at least 2018. Also, Apple is always one of the first major smartphone manufacturers to implement new emoji.

‘Injustice 2’ beta registration opens for future brawls

Developer NetherRealm Studios’ games are as well known for their over-the-top action as much as their shaky online multiplayer. It looks like the team has taken the latter to heart because its upcoming DC Comics fighter Injustice 2 will have a beta test prior to releasing on May 16th. A registration form is live right this moment and will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Compared to pre-release tests for shooters, fighting game betas aren’t nearly as common. However, Street Fighter V ran one of its own. Just think of how worse it could’ve been without those early real-world tests. To catch up on the Injustice 2 story so far, check out the recent story trailer below, braniac.

Register now for the upcoming Injustice 2 Online Beta for North America!
More details coming soon.https://t.co/VDi6nRlt39 pic.twitter.com/jpT5OEUD9b

— Injustice2 (@InjusticeGame) January 19, 2017

Via: Injustice 2 (Twitter)

Source: Injustice

Windows 10 is spamming Chrome users with a Microsoft shopping app

Microsoft really wants you to install and use its products on your computer. Beyond the myriad Start menu ads plaguing Windows 10, now users have to contend with pop-ups for Redmond-made stuff if they have Google’s Chrome browser installed as well. Myce reports (image below) that when Chrome is pinned to the taskbar an ad for Microsoft’s Personal Shopping Assistant extension hovers over the browser’s familiar icon.

The add-on itself has been around for about a year, but a recent update is triggering the spam. Expectedly, the Chrome Web Store is rife with complaints about the extension. Maybe if it was something genuinely useful it’d be a different story, but this is a crappy price comparison app. C’mon, Microsoft. The fear, noted by Thurrott, is that third-party developers could be given access to this and the OS would be overrun with similar garbage.

A particularly dire scenario could see Microsoft could charge extra for an ad-free version of Windows — a similar move to what YouTube did with YouTube Red, and Amazon does with Kindle devices.

[Thanks Jeb!]

Via: Thurrott

Source: Myce, Chrome Web Store

Big Ten Network adds ‘League of Legends’ to its tournament lineup

The Big Ten Network announced on Thursday that it’s adding a less conventional sport to its conference title coverage. Now, in addition to everything from baseball and basketball to football and field hockey, subscribers will be able to see their favorite schools compete against one another in League of Legends. Yeah, the video game.

The new conference championship will work much like last year’s Big Ten Network Invitational, an
LoL exhibition game between Michigan State and Ohio State. This year, five-player teams from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin will each compete for $5,000 scholarships. That’s $5,000 per member, not per team.

The structure of the event a bit convoluted. The first round will be a best-of-three round robin between division rivals. That is, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers will all play one another in the East while Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin will go against one another in the West.

The top four schools from each division at the end of the first round will then compete in a single elimination playoff bracket, a la March Madness, with the best from the West and the beast from the East will face off in the League of Legends College Championship. The tournament kicks off on January 30 with a match between Rutgers and Maryland, then every monday at 6pm ET. If so inclined, you can watch it online at watch.lolesports.com or BTN2Go.

This move only further illustrates how mainstream e-sports have become. ESPN2 has broadcast LoL and Heroes of the Storm (aka Heroes of the “Dorm”) events before, TBS has shown its fair share of Overwatch. And, last September, UC Irvine debuted the first e-sports arena in a public university. There are now even scholarships for students, if your fingers are nimble enough.

Source: Big Ten Networks

Google’s VR art app is open source and ready to get weird

Google’s Tilt Brush is capable of some pretty impressive results. But what if those 3D paintings and projects you made while strapped into virtual reality could escape into the real world? That’s the idea behind the open-source Tilt Brush Toolkit, available now on GitHub.

The company is “sharing all of our brush shaders, our audio reactive code, a streamlined Unity import pipeline” and a few developer-specific features in an effort to get folks crafting wild-looking games, videos and experiences. To give those who are inclined a springboard Google has also included a couple of examples to work from, including a racing game and what UploadVR describes as a “full first-person exploration piece with teleportation.”

Perhaps most important here is the integration with the Unity game design toolset. The engine runs on practically every platform and is favored by indie developers — especially those working within VR — because of how versatile it is. That it’s free for companies making under $100,000 a year is hard to ignore as well.

For an idea of what’s possible, peep the video embedded above. Hopefully it won’t take long for these animated 3D sketches to show up in more places.

Showcase your art in new places, on new platforms, and in new ways with the #TiltBrush Toolkit. https://t.co/EeyW57v9qy pic.twitter.com/LHgog6947n

— Google VR (@googlevr) January 19, 2017

Via: UploadVR

Source: GitHub, The Keyword blog

Multiple Simply Mac Stores Shutting Down Across the U.S.

Simply Mac, a well-known Apple Authorized Reseller and Service Provider owned by GameStop, is shutting down a number of its brick and mortar stores across the United States.

Locations in North Carolina, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, Illinois, and more, are closing this week.

Image via the Billings Gazette
Notices at some of the locations have suggested Simply Mac is being shut down because Apple is ending its agreement with the retail chain, and several local newspapers are reporting the same news, but on Twitter, Simply Mac says that is not true.

A notice sent out by the West Acres Mall in Fargo, North Dakota:

We wanted to reach out to you with news of another change at West Acres. As of today, Simply Mac has closed. Simply Mac opened at West Acres in August 2014 and we’ve enjoyed having them as part of the West Acres family.

The closure is due to the Apple Corporation ending its national agreement with Simply Mac to sell them Apple product, making it impossible for them to continue. They will be onsite for a few days to help with customers who have repaired items to pick up.

A GameStop spokesperson who spoke to the Midland-Reporter Telegram in Texas and the Billings Gazette in Montana said the closure of the Simply Mac store in that location was done as part of a business transformation plan that involves closing non-productive store locations.

“As GameStop announced in its holiday sales release, the company continues to focus on the execution of our business transformation plan, which includes growing our non-gaming businesses and right-sizing our global store portfolio across all our retail brands. This involves evaluating and closing non-productive locations. The closure of this Simply Mac store is part of that strategy.”

It is not clear why there is mixed information being shared about the store closures, but it appears that only a select number of stores are being shuttered at this time. We’ve reached out to GameStop for a full list of the locations that are disappearing.

The closure of several Simply Mac stores comes as GameStop faces flagging sales. Earlier this month, GameStop announced that its holiday sales fell 16.4 percent compared to 2015.

Tags: Apple retail, Simply Mac
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Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X, Compressor and Motion With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Apple today updated Final Cut Pro X, Compressor, and Motion, its software designed for professional video editors. Today’s updates, the first since October, add new features and multiple bug fixes.

Version 10.3.2 of Final Cut Pro X introduces the ability to add custom folders of audio files to the Sound Effects browser, and the following bug fixes:

– Ability to add custom folders of audio files to the Sound Effects browser
– Using ripple delete on audio-only clips no longer disables the selected range
– Audio meters retain custom width after relaunch
– Improves responsiveness when editing very long projects
– Improves performance when exporting H.264 files and changing frame rate
– Exporting ProRes 4444 files with transparency using Compressor creates a correct alpha channel
– Fixes an issue in which adjusting the line spacing of multi-line titles only applied to the first line
– Fixes an issue in which secondary storylines with mixed roles could overlap in the timeline
– Fixes an issue that could prevent burning Final Cut Pro projects to DVD via Apple USB SuperDrive

Motion version 5.3.1 introduces several bug fixes and improves stability. A full list of changes to the software is below:

– Improves stability when using multiple camera behaviors
– Improves performance when exporting H.264 files and changing frame rate
– Fixes a stability issue when using the Timecode text generator
– Fixes a stability issue when the cursor rolls over markers during playback
– Fixes a stability issue when using the nudge keyframe shortcut

Compressor version 4.3.1 also focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements, fixing problems with the Touch Bar, burning projects to DVD, and more.

– Fade In/Fade Out filter is applied correctly when using distributed encoding
– Disc name and titles are correctly displayed when using languages with double-byte characters
– Location paths are respected when using Compressor via Terminal
– Improves performance when exporting H.264 files and changing frame rate
– Exporting ProRes 4444 files with transparency using Compressor creates a correct alpha channel
– Fixes an issue that could prevent processing files using 32-bit codecs including Animation, PNG, Cinepak, and WMV
– Fixes an issue in which marker buttons on the Touch Bar may be displayed incorrectly
– Fixes an issue that could prevent burning Final Cut Pro projects to DVD via Apple USB SuperDrive

Final Cut Pro X can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $299.99. [Direct Link]

Compressor can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Motion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Tags: Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Compressor
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